Mad gestured a thumbs up and left the pavilion. Left alone, Zenos opened the blue-lit system menu. A bright button labeled [Alerts] with a separate, round [5] icon pulsated at the top of the menu. He opened the alert screen. [You have (1) attribute re-spec available] the first notification read from the top of the alert list. [You have (2) …

[Patch application complete] white letters read in the black behind Zenos’ eyes. [Body reconstruction complete.] [Network realignment complete.] [Re-initializing system, standby.] [Physical connections, online.] [Emotional connections, online.] [Spiritual connections, online.] [Sensory connections, online.] [Player System v2.0, initialized.] Zenos gasped for breath. What first he saw was the eggshell-white of a tall tent ceiling, then he felt the softness of a …

The sun was in the west as a quilt of clouds rolled below the mountain peak. They covered the land, such that Zenos felt he was standing on an island above the sky. Ahead of him, at the tip of the summit, was a memorial—a dwarfen idol—forged in mithril and dusted in snow. It gleamed a teal color under the …

Adheim Village was probably quiet. Most of the villagers had evacuated, abandoned their homes and their gardens, and those who stayed remained inside for their own safety. So, the morning of the dungeon raid wasn’t marked by tension, so much as by the deer that wandered the streets. They would have moved from one garden to the next and ate …

Don’t let me hold you back? Zenos wondered as he stepped ahead of the party. He glanced at its broken sword and saw how a phantom blade was projected above its shattered end. Why am I thinking about this now?  The dungeon ruler stomped forward and Zenos straightened up. I have to focus. He stared up through the ruler’s baleful …

The dungeon ruler swung its pair of axes through a black-marble column. It crashed down on Mad, but he was spirited to safety by the teleportation—the blink spell—of his phantom companion. Meanwhile the archer fired orange-lit spectral arrows from her tall bow, which stuck fast in the cracks in the ruler’s stone body. The plate-armor knight drew the ruler’s attention …

[Twenty-five level ups are waiting for you.] [Sword (one-hand) has increased from 50 to 51] [Sword (two-hand) has increased from 54 to 55] [Combat has ended.] The final room had been cleared. A black mist drifted over the floor, dusted Zenos’ pants and boots with the powdered remains of monsters. His sword rested low in his hand and his gray-wool …

It was first light when Zenos crept from his tent. He was drowsy and dehydrated, and so before he dealt with the issues of the day, he looked for his canteen. It was set outside his tent and had turned ice cold, which was pleasant on his dry throat. What sort of dream was I having? he wondered. It was …

  We waited a week in the ruined valley, while the demon emperor’s forces were replenished. When the mountain pass was truly closed, the demon emperor continued north to the Daz Baradash, the citadel heart of the dwarf kingdom. I instructed him on which roads to travel, what valleys to cross, and on where he’d find the tunnels to our …

It was the afternoon, one day before the dungeon break was set to begin. Zenos stood alone in the birch-wood valley. There was an automaton at his feet, laid out with its arms and legs parallel to its dented torso. One of its legs had been cut from the hip, and both its arms had been severed. Zenos had picked …